For Reps. Lee Terry and Ed Markey, the blame for 2011's energy gridlock comes down to unreasonable House leaders or a stubborn Obama administration.

Just don't expect them to agree on which.

Taking the blame the executive branch posture, Terry (R-Neb.) said Tuesday night that House Republicans have spent the year “playing more defense” against an overactive EPA.

“The EPA has kept our committee very busy with a myriad of rules, so many of them focused on electric generation and coal, boiler MACT and [the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule],” the Nebraska Republican said during a back-and-forth at POLITICO and POLITICO Pro’s Policy + Politics conference in Washington. “And boy, there’s hardly an area of energy they haven’t touched this year.”

Markey (D-Mass.) countered that President Barack Obama is not the one to blame.

“All of the legislation coming out of the House is so terrible for the environment when it comes to its relationship with energy that they have then died in the Senate,” he said. “And as a result, nothing was produced that can wind up on his desk to sign.”

Terry agreed that the White House hasn’t been directly involved in many energy issues on the Hill — but he said Obama has had plenty of surrogates.

“It was the invisible hand of agencies doing the political agenda of the White House,” Terry said.

The lawmakers' disagreement — characterized by regular talking points from both sides of the aisle over renewable energy and environmental regulations — eventually descended into crosstalk.

Republicans “also didn’t want us to [help] solar and wind and biomass and geothermal and plug-in hybrids and new battery technologies. That’s what it’s all about,” Markey said, complaining about GOP members' antipathy to renewable energy subsidies. “It’s not enough to give help to coal, which we were willing to do, and nuclear, which we were willing to do. No, [Terry] wants to kill the competition from the future.”

Terry shot back: “We’re worried about the four plants that are going to be closed down by CSAPR with no guarantee of reliability that those plants in the middle of Nebraska are going to have electricity. We’re concerned about those.”

CSAPR is a new EPA regulation designed to counter pollution that flows downwind between states. It has drawn criticism from the transmission industry and Republicans over concerns about the reliability of the electric grid.

McKibben said he sees growing support for environmental causes in the U.S., as shown in the protests that he helped organize outside the White House earlier this year against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The demonstrations — during which more than 1,000 activists were arrested — amounted to one of the largest peaceful movements in decades, he said.

“Around the country people are starting to take these issues seriously,” McKibben said. “The level of unrest around these issues is going grow over the years.”

That movement will make a big impact in the 2012 elections, he predicted.

“I think next year might be kind of interesting because as of today every single Republican running for the presidency — including now Jon Huntsman — has decided physics and chemistry are sort of optional and they’re not going to believe what scientists tell them all the time,” McKibben said. “And it may finally set up a point where we almost have to have this debate in public.”

Huntsman on Tuesday afternoon flipped his previous position on climate change, saying he believes that scientists need to provide more information before he can support any policy initiatives.

Bromwich also defended his former agency from attacks by conservatives, Gulf Coast lawmakers and the oil industry about an alleged de facto moratorium on Gulf drilling after the 2010 BP oil spill.

Such assertions are not true, he said.

“All of it was complete and utter nonsense,” said Bromwich, who recently stepped down shortly after BOEMRE was split into two offshore regulatory agencies.

Bromwich, a lawyer, had no experience in the energy industry before taking over the agency under Obama. “We were given largely a free rein to do what we thought was appropriate within the agency, to regulate the industry better, more aggressively and comprehensively,” he said.

Offshore drilling’s risks are nothing new, Bromwich added. “It’s a highly dangerous activity,” he said. “It’s been going on for a long time without a lot of serious incidents, but I think everyone’s eyes were opened with Deepwater Horizon.”

Congress had concerns over the length of time it was taking to process permits, Terry rebutted. But also worrisome, he said, were scandals involving inappropriate relationships between industry officials and employees of BOEMRE's predecessor, the Minerals Management Service, as well as allegations of ineptitude.

“Competency certainly was a factor, not just the number of inspectors,” Terry said.

Bromwich acknowledged that some scandals had occurred.

“But to suggest that the entire agency … was corrupt is simply not accurate, nor is the notion that people were inept,” he said. “We need to extinguish that narrative because it’s not supported by the facts.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 9:00 p.m. on December 6, 2011.